the hARz 2013 - Open German National Championship
Das Harz, der Harz, Die Hard - the hARz Drehtainer Adventure Race 2011 - 3rd edition.
The hARz team / 01.09.2011
However, for us it was the biggest logistic challenge so far and in some ways our best race" says race director Winfried Bats of the hARz Drehtainer Adventure Race in Northern Germany.Different to other editions was the fact that the race course did not go through the National Park. "We were there two years in a row and the east Harz has so much more to offer we wanted to organize the race in this area".
Keeping the logisitc challenge in mind it was a good idea to locate the race around the racebase.
The start of the race felt as if you were a participating hero at the olympics. Where even the world championships are glad some locals show up to wave off the teams the hARz started of with an impressive ceremony and quite an amount of supporters. The teams walked onto the field cheered to by supporters and visitors. Fire, drumbands, smoke, speeches and a nerve wrecking countdown audio montage set the mind for the race. "I had goosebumps all over when the countdown ended precisely on the second and firework fountains lit the dark surroundings and a loud cheer of the spectators roared intomthe hills of Bremer Teich. Experienced racers told me after the race they had never witnissed such a great start in their AR career".
With the music and supporting yell echoing in their ears the teams started a so called adventure trithlon in the dark. They ran in the dark to an area to change into the swimsuits. Ran back to the start to swim around the lake, get the punch on the raft and run between the crowds over the beach back to the changing area. Change into racing clothes back to the start to get the bicyle. All enthusiastically supported by the German speaker and visitors.
Hopped onto the bicycles and rode of for a climb up to the mtb checkpoint.
Fast downhill ride back to the start, leave the bicycle and get the last checkpoint on foot. Already the teams were spread out nicely. The visitors had a great time. "It was great to experience a start in which the public had a chance to see the sporters in action. Quite a difference compared to our standard orienteering start as we all know it" Winfried explains. The race for the start was faught by a Danish, Polish and the Brazilian team.
And then all are off to start the first mountainbike section.
The first section took 20 minutes longer than planned. "I forgot to expand the time of the starting section which changed quite late in the preparations" Winfried explains. "It also put some pressure on the start of the race as we found out the orienteering to the first special task took teams longer than expected". This first special task was great fun and
original: teams experienced a rodel track in which they plunged in to the dark downhill rolling over the hills on a small chart attatched to rails. As small children the yihaaaa's echoed in the night. It loosend up the tention of the first hours of the race.
During the mtb section, in total 52 km, it was dry but the teams in the back got wet on their bikes. The first transition area was the Josephkrauz, a tall steel tower with the shape of a cross. From here teams had a 12 km trekking to Stolberg, find cp's using an historic map and climb back to the TA. It wasn't very long but took a lot of time. It started raining but it was humid in the start, cold at the end. The historic map was flipped around by the painters of that time swapping north and south. Some teams got the picture straight away, for some it was a nightmare. Back at the TA teams carried out another localy influenced special taks: wood sawing, two persons with one saw. The good thing was it got the body nice and warm again.
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